WASHINGTON”•Beijing systematically dismantled CIA spying efforts in China beginning in 2010, killing or jailing more than a dozen covert sources, in a deep setback to US intelligence there, The New York Times reported Sunday.
The Times, quoting 10 current and former American officials who spoke on condition of anonymity, described the intelligence breach as one of the worst in decades.
It said that even now intelligence officials are unsure whether the US was betrayed by a mole within the CIA or whether the Chinese hacked a covert system used by the CIA to communicate with foreign sources.
Of the damage inflicted on what had been one of the most productive US spy networks, however, there was no doubt: at least a dozen CIA sources were killed between late 2010 and the end of 2012, including one who was shot in front of colleagues in a clear warning to anyone else who might be spying, the Times reported.
In all, 18 to 20 CIA sources in China were either killed or imprisoned, according to two former senior American officials quoted. It was a grave setback to a network that, up to then, had been working at its highest level in years.
Those losses were comparable to the number of US assets lost in the Soviet Union and Russia because of the betrayals of two infamous spies, Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen, the report said.
Western espionage services have traditionally found it exceptionally hard to develop spy networks in China and Russia.
The CIA’s mole hunt in China, following the severe losses to its network there, was intense and urgent. Nearly every employee of the US Embassy in Beijing was scrutinized at one point, the newspaper said.
Meantime, then-president Barack Obama’s administration was demanding to know why its flow of intelligence from China had slowed.
The revelations come as the CIA seeks to determine how some of its highly sensitive documents were released two months ago by WikiLeaks, and the FBI examines possible links between the Donald Trump campaign and Russia.
Both the CIA and the FBI declined to comment.
Meanwhile, the Chinese government has released the first draft of a new intelligence law aimed at formalizing its sweeping security powers, with broad authority to engage in surveillance at home and abroad.
The document would create a legal framework for the country’s extensive domestic and foreign intelligence work, which already includes widespread monitoring of communications and broad authority to detain anyone suspected of harming national security.
It is part of a raft of legislative measures drafted by China in recent years that grant the government formal authority to crack down on perceived threats to domestic stability, including laws on national security, espionage and cybersecurity.
Like those documents, the National Intelligence Law’s current draft is short on specifics: just six pages filled with ambiguously-worded phrases, according to a copy of the text posted on the website of the National People’s Congress Tuesday.
The text, which was made available for public comment seemingly without a formal announcement, had already received 236 responses by Thursday evening.
Among its 28 provisions, the draft gives the government wide authority to collect intelligence both at home and abroad and demand cooperation from companies and individuals in investigating national security concerns.
It would also allow the use of “technological reconnaissance measures”, a term that refers to hacking and wire-tapping among other surveillance methods.
Articles 10 and 11 specifically address intelligence operations with respect to “foreign bodies, organizations and individuals,” saying that those “engaging in acts harming the national security and interests… must be punished”.
Since President Xi Jinping took power in 2012, the county has become increasingly leery of foreign influence, with government officials regularly accusing so-called “foreign black hands” — everyone from journalists and human rights campaigners to textbook publishers and university professors — of attempting to subvert the country’s government.
Beijing has sought to raise public awareness of these supposed threats to national security, with campaigns warning against the dangers of dating foreign spies and encouraging tipsters to turn in “agents” for cash rewards.
“Under the backdrop of globalization, the covert struggles between different countries and regions have become more complex, so Chinese citizens need to be educated to build and enhance their sense of intelligence,” Yang Jianying, a professor at China’s University of International Relations, told the state-run newspaper the Global Times.
In addition to expanding the government’s authorities, the draft law also seeks to place some curbs on Beijing’s power.
The measures, if implemented, would require the government to pay compensation for damages incurred during the course of reconnaissance or investigations.
It also makes provisions for filing complaints against intelligence organisations, saying that “any individual or organisation” may report abuses of power and other “unlawful acts to higher-level authorities”.
